Special Education Needs

“If a child does not learn in the way we teach, then we must teach him in the way in which she/he learns“.

In our Special Education Department, we cater for the needs of children who for one reason or another are finding difficulty in coping with some area of the curriculum.

Students who need more individual help than can be given in the normal mainstream class are tutored in small groups in the basic subjects or subjects with which they are having special difficulty.

However, there are students whose educational problems extend over the full curriculum and who in their previous school were being given extra tuition in a special class due to a specific learning difficulty in literacy and /or numeracy.

Similar provision is made in St. Brendan’s College for students in this category.

Here, under the guidance of Ms. Donohoe ( PGSEN) who is specially qualified in this area pupils can be assessed and receive the individual attention that they need and make use of the special books, special equipment and computer facilities available to them.

Whether a student’s difficulty is a specific one or more general, the special needs tutor and staff work together to ensure that any pupil experiencing difficulties will reach his/her full potential.

Procedure for Incoming Students

Application for entry to St. Brendan’s College is made on a standard application form. This form is designed to elicit relevant information about special needs of pupils and parents are required to make known the Childs needs on the form. Where students have been assessed by a psychologist or have availed of any special tuition or resource at National School, parents are required to make this known.

In April of each year incoming students are invited to St. Brendan’s to complete Aptitude tests. The results will ascertain reading, mathematical and spelling ages of incoming first years.

Pupils with scores relatively lower than their chorological ages will be retested in September of that year. The diagnostic tests will reflect pupil’s difficulties in reading, writing, spelling and mathematical areas.

A profile of the particular pupil is prepared by liaising with parents, former principles resource teachers and outside agencies.

Parents are contacted to discuss their child’s needs and learning targets.

The curriculum is adapted to suit the pupil’s needs, timetables are drawn up and pupils are withdrawn from mainstream to receive support.

For further information, contact the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator Anna Donohoe